Here's an odd one, at least to me, but the airline world is a web of rules...

Tried to ticket EZE-SCL-LAX for the return of a J award on LAN. SCL has no U seats right now, but there are plenty of U seats for EZE-LIM-LAX on LP. Reservation goes through, I get my seats, etc.

This morning, AA phones me to say that LP isn't allowing my journey, as it contains an LP transit in LIM. The agent said I could only transit LP to LP at LIM if I'm on a through flight, which is the one-stop Sao Paulo-LAX.

I could fly EZE-Sao Paulo-LIM-LAX, but that'd cause me to leave EZE much earlier than I'd planned.. so for now, I'll just take the Y seat SCL-LAX and hope LA releases a U seat sometime over the next month. (Unless I have slim chances on this route).

When it comes to awards LAN is different than most. IME, once LAN says no more award seats, that is it.

Thanks Viajero, that's the feeling I've gotten as well (that said, their initial inventory offerings are quite substantial, just not on my return day).

Any familiarity with the LP rule I ran into?

Edited: see post #6.

Tell AA to give you the rule, and if they can't then tell them to go to bat for you. To my knowledge, there is no such thing and LP can't just arbitrarily impose non-existent rules. As much as I love LA as an airline, they are notorious for pulling this crap. They get a bug in their head about how something should be interpreted and then they won't budge. Get AA to make them budge. They are your miles.

Also, check availability on EZE-LAX, it may be different than SCL-LAX even with the same flights. That's not uncommon, though it's also not the norm.

I think I now know what the rule is, and it looks like LA/LP/AA are right.

The AA all-partner award between Zone A and Zone B specifically prohibits connections at a point located in Zone C, with several exceptions, one of them being that direct (single flt #) LP flights between SA2 and NA are allowed, even if they make a stop in LIM.

It seems then that since EZE is in SA2, and LIM in SA1, and the flight is not direct, the EZE-LIM-LAX routing has been correctly turned down.

I think a better question is what type of award is this. If it's a partner award, then I think you may be right. If it's a Oneworld award, then he should be able to transit or stop in Lima.

You are both correct.. I'm on an all partner award, which is where the (somewhat silly?) rule applies.

I had a friend make an LA/LP connection in LIM last month, but that was part of a oneworld award.

So instead, I'm just going to take the confirmed J seat back to JFK, and with the 0730 arrival I'll hustle over to catch AA 1 to LAX at 0900 (no checked bags), unless someone thinks it foolish and I'll book the 1000 flight.

On a side note, what's safe connection time at SCL?

There's nil availability, but it just occured to me that EZE-GRU-JFK on 4M and JL could also be an option.

Seats in J seem hard to come by on that JL flight, is it a popular one? I always enjoy flying 5th Freedom flights.. something very exotic about it.